OSHA says it is renewing work on a permanent COVID-19 standard for the healthcare sector in light of the Supreme Court ruling that blocked its economy-wide vaccination rule, but warns that a final rule is still “six to nine months” away in a new legal filing opposing unions’ bid for a court order seeking a permanent standard within 30 days.
Attorneys say the Supreme Court’s stay of OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccine standard both forces the agency to use the general duty clause as its primary tool to enforce pandemic safety measures, and creates new hurdles for those efforts -- though it could also open the door to a separate rule based on the emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare workers.
Labor groups and House Democrats are urging OSHA to issue a final rule based on its temporary COVID-19 vaccine standard but are split on how to approach that task, with some seeking comprehensive guidelines while others, including the lawmakers, favor a narrower rule that reflects the Supreme Court’s decision blocking the emergency standard.
Observers say the Supreme Court decision blocking OSHA’s COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) could chill the future development of safety standards and ease challenges to its rulemakings, especially if the agency attempts to craft "holistic" policies for new dangers.
The Supreme Court’s Jan. 13 order blocking enforcement of the OSHA emergency temporary standard for COVID-19 vaccination is drawing strident responses from all political corners.
The Supreme Court’s decision blocking implementation of OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccine-or-test emergency temporary standard (ETS) holds that the economy-wide rule is too broad to fit within the agency’s authority to regulate “occupational safety,” but also provides a roadmap for more targeted limits that could survive judicial review.
The Supreme Court has reinstated a nationwide stay of OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination, holding that challengers to the rule are “likely to succeed on the merits” of their claims because the rule is broad enough to qualify as a “public health” mandate rather than an occupational standard.
Observers on all sides expect the Supreme Court to stay implementation of OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccine-or-testing standard in the coming days, leaving many employers uncertain on how to move forward after its first compliance deadline arrived on Jan. 10, especially as OSHA has yet to act on requests for extensions -- including from the Postal Service.
Conservative Supreme Court justices appeared to doubt OSHA’s authority to issue its COVID-19 vaccine-or-testing emergency temporary standard (ETS), with several questioning whether Congress could have foreseen situations like the current pandemic when it wrote the OSH Act, and others asking if the standard is truly necessary to fight the coronavirus.
State and national labor groups are asking a federal appeals court for an order that would force OSHA to reinstate its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare workers and quickly enact a permanent rule for the sector, teeing up what could be the first appellate decision on the agency’s ability to extend the six-month emergency regulations.